Tuesday, November 22, 2011

First I put two coats of Zoya Holly on. Holly is from Zoya's Gems and Jewels holiday 2011 collection. I then added a coat of China Glaze Haute Metal on the top. Haute Metal is a pink metallic crackle. They came out with this over the summer. As much as I love this combo, I am wishing I left an accent nail without the crackle. Zoya Holly is almost too pretty to cover up!

Here it is without the flash. I definitely don't want to remove this!

This is what Holly looks like on its own. Excuse the mess! I didn't clean up until I put the crackle on top. This is the PERFECT emerald green. I have nothing in my collection like it!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Here I have another one of those heat-activated mood polishes. I purchased this at Forever 21. On the back it says "Love and Beauty", which is the name of Forever 21's nail polish line. It also has the same packaging as the Blue Cross mood polishes, so they may be the manufacturer of them. It also doesn't have a name, but it changes from magenta to a rose color. Here it is when I'm cold! It looks almost purple.

It turned this color when I ran my hand under hot water.

Just seconds after I took the picture with the hot water, it already began to shift back to magenta. My apartment is cold!

This is OPI- Take the Stage from the 2010 Holiday Burlesque collection. I just recently picked this up. I found it at Giant Eagle surprisingly. I thought it was a nice fall Thanksgiving-like color. It's between orange and bronze.

Here it is without the flash.

Here is my haul from the past week. I went to Five Below, Rite Aid, and ULTA. I found a dotting tool at Five Below for $1.50. From the top I have Funky Fingers: Teal Scales, Zeppelin, Monster Balla!, Sold Out Arena, Sound Check, Power Chord, and Stage Dive. In the bottom row I have China Glaze- It's Alive!, OPI- Russian Navy Suede, two unnamed glitter snowmen polishes, CQ- Golden Green, ORLY- Angrogynie, Jessie's Girl- JulieG, and Sally Hansen- Almond Crunch.

Almond Crunch didn't look very unique, but I picked it up because it looked like an older one.

Friday, November 18, 2011

OPI- Extra-va-vaganza is from the 2010 holiday Burlesque collection. I LOVE this! It has so many different colors of glitter in it.

Without the flash, this is kind of a blurry picture but you can see how shiny it is.

This is mood nail polish that changes color according to the temperature. Blue Cross makes this polish. The name of the shade is "light purple to light pink". This is the purple after I ran my hand under cold water.

Here is the purple without the flash.

Wow! This polish has a drastic color change. It's a light pink. This is after running my hand under hot water. I have a few other mood polishes from Blue Cross in my stash and I am eager to see if the color change is as evident.

OPI- Come to Poppy is from the 2011 Nice Stems summer collection. The application was actually very smooth, but then I took a really long hot bath and it chipped at the tips. I didn't have enough time to completely redo my mani, so I touched up the tips. It chipped a little bit after that also. I think that usually the wear time on this is pretty good, I just was in the bathtub too long.

This is really a gorgeous shade! It's hot pink with a hint of coral in it.

This is Essie- Damsel in a Dress. It's a dark shimmery plum color. It kind of reminds me of a redder version of OPI's Lincoln Park at Midnight (although I don't own it). Excuse the messy application. I used it as a base with OPI-Pink Shatter and this was before I added the shatter so I didn't clean up. It looks so much darker in person. The flash really brings out the shimmer in it. In darker light, it just looks like a creme.

Here it is with the OPI Pink Shatter. I like how this combo turned out. It's much more subtle, but the flash makes it look more contrasting. I am kind of disappointed with the pink shatter though. It seems to only really show up on a color much lighter than it. I was hoping it would be more opaque. And yes, it's still messy! I believe I was in a rush that day.

OPI- Figi Weejee Fawn. I love this!! This may be my go to job interview color. It's almost my skin tone, yet it has a frosty shimmer to it. I also cut down my nails a lot! I believe this is discontinued but I've seen a few on ebay recently.

Here it is without the flash. I really didn't want to remove this. Now I'm starting to wonder what it would look like with the pink shatter.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Apple Bottoms- Gold Mine This was a gorgeous gold! I was unaware that Apple Bottoms made nail polish but I found a 6 pack gift set of them at Ross for $5 and just couldn't pass it up! The finish is somewhat streaky but that doesn't bother me. This is three coats.

without the flash

China Glaze- Fortune Teller Unfortunately I missed out on this when it was at Sally's a couple years ago, but I was able to find a great deal on ebay. I love this! I wore it on Halloween. It was the perfect festive polish! It is orange glitter in a nearly opaque black jelly base. This is two coats.

Without the flash

Before removing it, I was curious to see what it would look like mattified. I put a coat of Essie- Matte About You over it. I was happy with the result!

Last weekend, I was surprised to see that ULTA had the OPI Muppets collection in. I splurged on all six of the glitters for now. I'll probably go back for the rest eventually. This is OPI- Fresh Frog of Bel-Air. I love the fact that there are different sizes and colors of glitter. This has tiny pieces of green glitter and larger pieces of the silver. I think that these were meant to be layered because there are a lot of bare patches on the nail. This is three coats. For the next Muppet glitters I wear, I'll remember to layer them over a similar base color. That way, I'll probably only need 1-2 coats.

Here it is without the flash. Note that these Muppet glitters are a nightmare to remove. Even with the acetone and aluminum foil method it took a long time and a lot of scrubbing with the cotton balls. If you plan to use these, you definitely need patience for the removal!

Zoya- Kissy This is part of Zoya's holiday collection. This is very tiny pieces of fuchsia glitter and holographic stringy bar glitter. It is very unique. It looks like a fuzzy sweater to me. The texture is very interesting. This needed three coats. It dried very quickly too, but I used Seche Vite because it was very gritty. I also had to file down my nails after they dried because of the gritty glitter hanging off the tips.

Here it is without the flash. The removal for this looks like it would be time-consuming, but it wasn't bad using the foil and acetone method. Absolutely nothing like the OPI Muppet glitters! These are also great for layering, but I just decided to wear it on its own.

ORLY- Old School Orange This was part of their Plastix collection. It is not completely matte, but not a creme either. It does feel like plastic! These wear a lot better than the mattes. They take a little bit longer to dry. If you notice, I have indentations on my middle finger. I did my nails too close to going to bed.